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Hartford Food Entrepreneurs Are On a Sandwich Revolution

August 22 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Connecticut, entrepreneur, Hartford, startup, Toasted

“Success is having people who work for you feel satisfied and happy to come to work,” says Toasted Co-Owner Debra Raviv.

“Success is having people who work for you feel satisfied and happy to come to work,” says Toasted Co-Owner Debra Raviv.

Longtime entrepreneurs Debra and Khen Raviv, co-owners of Toasted, LLC, felt there was a market for a chain of unique, casual sandwich shops in Connecticut. Innovation Destination Harford spoke with Debra about the couple’s entrepreneurial journey and plans for future growth.

IDH: Were you always an entrepreneurial? Did you always know you were going on your own business?

RAVIV: Yes, I was definitely entrepreneurial. I grew up in a household of entrepreneurial parents who ran their own business for 25 years. I went to Syracuse University and post-graduation decided to move to Europe where I trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris.

Then, at 25, a business partner and I opened The Frog & The Peach, which was in Canton, CT. We were there five years. I worked for people in the industry in between each of my own projects. So I have worked for other restauranteurs, but I would say yes, I was kind of laser-focused on having my own business.

IDH: Toasted launched in 2013 as a food truck. You opened the Hartford storefront in 2015. Tell us about that evolution.

RAVIV: After having two full-service restaurants and three kids, Khen and I decided we wanted to do something different. We looked into the quick service restaurant (QSR) industry. I did a lot of research and attended some franchising expos. We liked the flexibility of being able to duplicate a storefront that’s small without table service.

IDH: At what point did you decide we don’t want to do a franchise, we want to do our own thing?

RAVIV: I think there’s a lack of creative control with a franchise; you’re not reaping the full benefits of your hard work. It’s 100 times harder to start your own franchise, for sure. It would have been easier to just buy something. But that’s not always going to make you successful.

We really believed that we had our own idea and we believe there is room for another chain, whether we stay as a corporate-run company or we switch to franchise, I don’t know.

IDH: How did you develop the business concept for Toasted?

RAVIV: We asked ourselves: What’s missing in the market? Where is the food industry going?

The Toasted concept developed because we felt the market was lacking really good sandwiches. We originally planned to open a storefront and have a chain of Toasteds. How we got to the food truck is another story.

We spent six months looking for a location in New Haven—we originally wanted to launch near Yale. We couldn’t find any spaces that were under 2,000 ft.² We spend lot of time in New York City, where there are so many food trucks—that gave us the idea to start with a food truck and test the market before diving into a fixed lease. So we purchased a food truck, had it retrofitted, and decided to launch in Hartford because we live in West Hartford.

When we launched in the spring of 2013 in Bushnell Park we had such a great response. Since then, we have more than 3,000 people following us on Facebook and more than 650 Instagram followers.

Toasted opened its Hartford storefront in 2015.

Toasted opened its Hartford storefront in 2015.

Our next step was opening the storefront. We decided to be a Hartford-based company. About 15 months after the food truck we signed a lease in downtown Hartford. This is our flagship. The reception to having the storefront was even better than the food truck. People absolutely loved it.

IDH: Is the food truck still in operation?

RAVIV: No, we don’t go out daily anymore. We still go out several times a week, but we’ll go to companies like The Hartford and MassMutual, or we do private events at places like UConn Health Hospital or Hartford Hospital.

And then on the weekends we do tons of events. We do all the University of Connecticut football games at Rentschler Field, we are contracted through the food service company. We are inside the stadium, which is a really cool venue.

That’s actually how we got to UConn. We developed so many relationships from being at the UConn football games that we started getting approached by the developers at Storrs Center.

IDH: Tell us more about that.

RAVIV: In September we’re going to open a second location at Storrs Center. That relationship with UConn is really good for us because we are very student-friendly. Because of the food truck events we do at UConn, the students already know who we are. We have a good visibility there.

We also recently signed with IMG, so we’ll be the official sandwich of UConn and we’ll be a UConn sponsor of athletics. That relationship is really big for us because we can use the UConn logo on everything we do.

IDH: Do you have plans for additional locations?

RAVIV: We have ideas. We always had a five-year goal, which was that we want to have a minimum of 10 stores. I think once you pass that second and third location, you’re able to grow more quickly. The first couple locations are challenging because you’re an unknown and it’s hard to negotiate good deals. Once you have two, three, four stores, the people you work with—vendors, landlords—they know you. You become a household name and you start to have more leverage.

We’re looking in New Haven. We always wanted to be near Yale. It’s a really hot area. The casino would be a phenomenal area too, but it’s very tough to get in there. We’re also looking at the southern part of the state, and then beyond that we are thinking of Massachusetts.

IDH: So you’re thinking you will branch out to other states?

RAVIV: Definitely. We would like to be in every state.

Our concept is duplicable. We have all the systems in place in terms of inventory and ordering. We can really be anywhere because we don’t have hot kitchens, which gives us a lot of flexibility. Toasted could be in an airport, a bus or train station, or even a kiosk.

That’s what motivates us—figuring out where we’ll have our next store. The one at UConn is going to be bigger and different, we need to think about what we’ll change compared to the Hartford store. With each location, you get a little better.

IDH: It’s sort of how you innovate.

RAVIV: Exactly.

IDH: How many employees do you have?

RAVIV: Currently, we have about 10. I was director of the Hartford Culinary Arts Academy in 2009. I ran an internship program there with Capital Workforce Partners, where I groomed seniors and placed them in local restaurants. Some of those interns now work at Toasted.

Our staff will probably double or triple with the UConn store opening. Hartford is very corporate, so we’re Monday through Friday, nothing on the weekends except for the truck. UConn will be seven days a week, with late-night hours, and we’re going to do deliveries. So, it looks very different in terms of staffing.

IDH: You mentioned Hartford and how you wanted to have a presence here, why was that important to you?

RAVIV: Hartford fit our demographic. We wanted to be in a corporate, urban, downtown location.

I was born and raised a few miles from here. It felt like this draw to be in Hartford. It just felt like the city needed more local options. And we’re very involved with the city.

IDH: How so?

RAVIV: For example, we’ve had the food truck at Envisionfest Hartford. We help out with non-profits including the Jordan Porco Foundation, The Caliber Foundation, and the Hartford Police Athletic League (PAL)—we feed all the PAL kids during the season.

We are also charitable to organizations in Hartford, for instance we donate gifts to Hartford Young Professionals and Entrepreneurs (HYPE). We’re working to promote the city in any way we can. Any time we can do something in Hartford that’s either helping the city or donating back to the city, we try to be involved.

IDH: And that’s important to you because?

RAVIV: It’s absolutely important because you need to support the community where you have a business. About 90% of our employees come from Hartford. The more we can do to help increase the economic development in the city, the better we feel about it. We feel like we’re helping to contribute to the reviving of the city.

IDH: How do you define success?

RAVIV: The definition of success is not always financial. I think that’s part of it—you definitely want to be financially successful or else your business won’t stay open.

But success for me also means that every day I go to work I feel good about what I do. I like to come to work. It’s also important that our employees like to come to work. So success is having people who work for you feel satisfied and happy to come to work, too.

IDH: Any advice for people starting their own companies?

RAVIV: I didn’t know this when I opened my first restaurant, but my advice would be: You cannot expect success overnight. You have to be patient. And you have to know that it’s a lot of hard work.

I’m a hustler. Last summer we were in the final cut for Shark Tank. In order to do that, you have to be a hustler. You have to be out there every day pounding the pavement, finding the new customers, figuring out what you can do to increase your sales, and also always looking at what’s next.

If you’re not looking at what’s next, your company is not growing. If you’re not growing as a company, you’re dragging. You have to find ways to increase your sales every day. You can’t just sit back and say: I hope people come in. You always have to be out there. It’s constantly changing, there’s always more competition, prices are always going up, and you have to find new ways to reinvent yourself. And that’s a challenge.

Learn more about Toasted by visiting getittoasted.com.

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Goodwin College and Onyx Spirits Company to Host the Secret Stash Beer Bash Benefiting Scholarships

August 11 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Connecticut brewery, CT, entrepreneur, Goodwin College, Onyx Spirits Company, startup breweries

CONNECTICUT BREWERIES COMPETE TO CREATE THE BEST BARREL-AGED BEER

secret-stash-2016Onyx Spirits Company, a Connecticut craft liquor distillery, in partnership with Goodwin College, has announced the second annual Secret Stash Beer Bash to be held at Goodwin College on the Connecticut River August 27, 2016 to benefit student scholarships.

The Secret Stash Beer Bash was the first beer festival to exclusively feature Connecticut breweries producing barrel-aged beers, raising more than $10,000 for Goodwin College’s hardworking students.

The outdoor event will take place on the Goodwin College campus in East Hartford, CT and will feature music, local food, and an exclusive VIP boat cruise for sponsors. General admission tickets are $42 per person and include tastings of all the Secret Stash barrel-aged beers, a Secret Stash pilsner tasting glass, and Onyx Moonshine tastings. Designated Driver tickets are also available for $15 per person and include soft drinks.

“Last year we had almost 500 people on campus for a gorgeous night featuring Connecticut’s own breweries, local food, and music,” said Mark Scheinberg, President of Goodwin College. “We are so fortunate to have this partnership with East Hartford business, Onyx Spirits. They are true ambassadors for the Goodwin community.”

Each participating Connecticut brewery has received one seasoned five-gallon Secret Stash barrel to produce their best barrel-aged beer. The beer from each brewery will be judged by the Secret Stash Beer Bash attendees.

Last year’s winner was Shebeen Brewery from Wolcott, CT. As the winner, they had access to Onyx’s seasoned Secret Stash barrels for one year and they released several limited edition beers. This year’s winner will also partner with Onyx Spirits to release their own unique Secret Stash beer.

And the giving back continues after this year’s Bash! Onyx will be collecting the barrels from each brewery will age a special-edition of Secret Stash Whiskey in them. Each whiskey will have a hint of flavor from the unique barrel-aged brews. Onyx will donate back to the Goodwin College Foundation for every brewery whiskey flight purchased at the Onyx Speakeasy tasting room in East Hartford.

In 2013, Onyx Spirits Co. released Secret Stash, Connecticut’s first barrel aged whiskey. The product has garnered numerous international awards. It is produced using corn, malted grain, and Connecticut Spring water, then aged in five-gallon American oak barrels for more than two years before the barrels are ready for beer.

Find out more and purchase tickets to the event at www.goodwin.edu/secretstash.

About Onyx Moonshine
Onyx Spirits Company redefined American spirits with the release of Onyx Moonshine, the country’s first ultra-premium moonshine, and Secret Stash, New England’s first aged whiskey. Onyx Moonshine was the Official Spirit of the 2012 GRAMMY Awards. The company was voted by Yankee Magazine as the “Best New England Micro-Distillery,” won two gold medals at the 2014 International Craft Awards Competition, and won a triple gold medal at the 2014 Micro Liquor Awards. Learn more at www.onyxmoonshine.com.

Read our interview with entrepreneur Adam von Gootkin, Co-Founder of Onyx Spirits Company. 

About Goodwin College
Goodwin College is an innovative learning community that empowers hard-working students to become sought-after employees. We tailor our programs to address the needs of employers, and we shape them to fit the lives of students. Classes are conveniently offered year-round — days, evenings, weekends, and online. Degrees may be flexibly layered across certificate, associate, and bachelor's programs in a variety of in-demand fields. Better still, we surround our students with the personal support and the professional guidance​ they need — not just to earn degrees, but to change lives for themselves, their families, and their communities. To learn more, visit www.goodwin.edu.

Read our interview with Goodwin College Founding President Mark Scheinberg.

 

 

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Startup Teahouse Finds Success in West Hartford, CT

July 20 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Connecticut, entrepreneur, Green Teahouse, SCORE, startup, West Hartford

Green_Teahouse2

The Green Teahouse is located at 40 Isham Road, Blue Back Square, West Hartford.

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price recently visited The Green Teahouse in West Hartford Center’s Blue Back Square, where she enjoyed a cup of tea and learned about the startup’s staying power in West Hartford and plans for additional locations in Connecticut.

STARTUP BRINGS TRADITION TO CONNECTICUT

Originally from Chengdu, China, Ting Luo was studying for her Masters in Hospitality Management at the University New Haven Graduate School. She would often bring her tea to class and professors and friends showed interest in the tea she was drinking. They were wanted to learn more about traditional Chinese tea and the culture behind it—which gave Luo the idea to open a teahouse in Connecticut.

Luo says she always knew she wanted to start her own company. She and her brother Wei, who lives in China and is an investor in the Green Teahouse, started the company in 2009.

“My brother and I always enjoyed the tradition of drinking fresh, loose tea. He operates a teahouse in China, so we were familiar with the traditions and values,” explains Luo.

“We study different teas and have developed close relationships with tea providers there. It helped us develop an appreciation for our culture—which became something we wanted to share here in Connecticut, where there isn’t really a tea culture,” she adds.

Luo says she decided to stay in Connecticut because she had built a strong network of friends and colleagues and she saw a market for a teahouse. She chose West Hartford as a location due to the city’s affluence and lifestyle.

“People in this area are looking for things that are healthy,” she notes. “I wanted to introduce some of the culture and health benefits associated with drinking authentic Chinese tea.”

FINDING ITS NICHE

Finding its place in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square has been interesting for Luo. There has been a lot of turnover in Blue Back Square since the shopping area opened in 2008.

“Opening a teahouse was easy, how to survive is key,” says Luo. “We have been successful in this location because we are a unique, specialty store,” she notes. “We have a unique product and we bring unique culture from China.”

The Green Teahouse draws “consciousness people who are seeking a premium, authentic product and experience,” says Luo. “We have a profound knowledge about tea. We know the culture and we enjoy sharing it.”

Sales and Marketing Manager Laree Salmon has been a customer at The Green Teahouse since 2012. “I love this place and I love the tea here,” she says. “It’s a product that’s very good for you, which I think a lot of the customers are realizing, and it also tastes good. It’s nice to enjoy something with a health benefit. You don’t feel so guilty about your pleasure.”

She adds what she thinks gives The Green Teahouse its staying power in Blue Back Square is “the tradition it offers and the Chinese culture Ting is able to bring to the experience. It’s very authentic. We showcase some of the traditional elements like how we prepare the tea.”

The Green Teahouse offers more than 50 varieties of tea.

The Green Teahouse offers more than 50 varieties of tea.

The Green Teahouse offers more than 50 varieties of tea. The store also caters to a Western culture.

“For instance, we offer traditional tea and special blends from fermented and aged pu-erh tea, white tea, green tea, and oolong tea, to Western herbal teas and bubble tea. Customers can find many different types of tea and flavors to get benefits from natural plants and flowers from China and other countries,” explains Salmon.

“In fact, medicinal benefits are important to our customers,” she adds. “Based on Chinese tradition, pu-erh tea may help reduce blood pressure and sugar, it detoxes the body and helps with weight loss, whereas green tea may help to reduce cancer rate and increase immune system and white tea is a beauty aid for anti-aging and helps with skin complexion.”

“We help our customers to ‘find their inner tea.’ We offer something that’s very valuable to their lives, it’s like therapy,” adds Salmon.

“We really focus on our customers,” she emphasizes. “They were the ones who originally requested a sit-down area in the shop where they could relax and enjoy their tea. We do offer cups of tea to go, as well.”

STARTUP MARKETING AND EVOLUTION

Since The Green Teahouse opened, the company has marketed itself through social media and education.

“I’ve gone to schools to give talks about the culture and benefits of tea,” says Luo.

Ting Luo, owner of The Green Teahouse, provided teas for an AIDS Connecticut event at the Governor’s Mansion.

Ting Luo, owner of The Green Teahouse, provided teas for an AIDS Connecticut event at the Governor’s Mansion.

Tea ceremonies, which the store does by appointment, provide one form of education—as well as relaxation.

“The goal is to have people learn about Chinese people’s appreciation for tea and about the thinking that tea can help you develop a pure and peaceful state of mind,” explains Luo.

The Green Teahouse also provides educational talks to businesses as an extension of their health and wellness programs.

“It’s a form of community outreach,” explains Salmon. “I think partnerships are great.”

In March, The Green Teahouse partnered with Field to Face Organics for a “Beau-TEA” party, which Salmon hopes will be the first in a series. “That’s one way of reaching out and working with people in the community,” she says. “We are hoping to work with more health and wellness coaches.”

ADVANCING THE STARTUP

When The Green Teahouse first opened, Luo says her expectation was to share tea culture and “expand our teahouse.” She says her goal is to open in additional locations throughout Connecticut. “But we’ll definitely need help in terms of expertise, advice, and investing.”

STARTUP MENTORING

Luo notes she worked closely with SCORE, a non-profit association supported by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) that provides education and mentorship to help small businesses get up and running.

“We worked with the New Haven and Greater Hartford branches, which were both very helpful,” Luo says.

“If you are starting out and looking for mentoring, SCORE can really help,” she adds. “They gave me advice about finding the best business partner and staff—as just one person it can be very challenging.”

Learn more about The Green Teahouse by visiting www.thegreenteahouse.com.

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Hartford’s Vintage Cocktail Bar Is a Startup Success Story

June 21 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments

LLR_outsideInnovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price stopped by Little River Restoratives to meet co-owners Chris Parrott and Patrick Miceli and discuss startups, cocktails, and small business growth in Hartford.

PRICE: How did the idea for Little River Restoratives get off the ground?

PARROTT: Patrick and I met a few years ago while I was doing my wine training for my sommelier certification. Patrick had just opened a restaurant, 50 West in Plainville, CT, so we had a lot of common interests. He would come in to the place I was working and we would talk about trends and business and what’s happening in hospitality. We found out we have a lot of similar viewpoints.

We both saw an emerging market for a cocktail bar in the near future. We were aware of trends in drinking and eating and knew that if we were to do something like that we’d have a good chance of addressing an underserved market and being a unique presence in restaurants and bars. And it’s something we’re both kind of passionate about—I’m a big cocktail buff. I like the history of it.

PRICE: So it was both of your ideas, but did one of you have a stronger inclination?

MICELI: Oh, Chris for sure.

PARROTT: I came in with the idea of a cocktail bar. Patrick loved it immediately. We both knew it was viable as a concept within the hospitality business in the Hartford area. And everything you see here is pretty much an even, cooperative effort.

PRICE: You opened November 1, 2015. Tell me about the growth and business reach since then.

MICELI: We have a large industry following. We don’t do any organized marketing other than social media. We have a $0 budget for marketing. It’s kind of interesting.

PRICE: That seems common. Most of the craft brewers and distilleries we’ve talked to say they don’t focus on doing big flashy ads or anything like that.

MICELI: Exactly.

PARROTT: There’s a value added when you have to seek it out. Something is worth more when you have to find it. If it’s constantly thrown in your face it loses value.

One of the great things about the bar is that we are in this great period right now. It’s cool to say: Hey I found this cocktail bar.

PRICE: That was the buzz I got and how I started to hear about you.

Little River Restoratives co-owners Chris Parrott (left) and Patrick Miceli with Vivian, the mannequin, who is frequently styled by the owner of local business Venom Vintage.

Little River Restoratives co-owners Chris Parrott (left) and Patrick Miceli with Vivian, the mannequin, who is frequently styled by the owner of local business Venom Vintage.

MICELI: The fun thing about doing this—there’s no barometer because it’s a one-of-a-kind concept for this area.

PRICE: Little River Restoratives really is one-of-a-kind. How do you stay innovative?

MICELI: I think you’re always evolving. Chris changes the menu all the time. We always try to keep it interesting. I think we are going to add brunch eventually.

PARROTT: The concept is always evolving. We’ve already implemented two or three events a month. We have pop-up dinners. We’re trying to do one of those every month. We also do themed nights.

Cocktails is a very dynamic culture right now, so it’s hard to stay stagnant. Things are always evolving and changing. It’s kind of easy in a sense to keep changing things when you’re caught up in the wave of change that’s happening around you.

PRICE: Let’s talk about Hartford. Is it important that Little River Restoratives is located here?

PARROTT: Yes it is important. It’s important because Hartford deserves to have at least one solid cocktail bar. Hartford is the capital city of Connecticut and it deserves a more ambitious and adventurous drinking and eating scene. And we want to be a part of that.

It’s a point of pride. And the city has actually been very good to us so far in terms of getting things done.

MICELI: The city has been fantastic.

PARROTT: We didn’t know that going in, but it’s encouraged us to want to do more locations and concepts in Hartford.

PRICE: Can we talk about that a little bit? Did you receive any state funding?

MICELI: We self-financed. We don’t have any investors. We didn’t go to the city for any kind of money. We may for future ventures. We did work hand-in-hand with them for planning and zoning. We had to go for a variance because this space has been zoned residential. The rezoning and variance was quite a process, but the city made it fairly easy for us. They were good to work with.

PRICE: Was the city of Harford supportive in any other ways?

MICELI: When the city heard about our concept they knew nothing like it existed here in Hartford. I think they were looking for something different.

Also, we are younger folks willing to take a risk and I think the city ultimately wants to drive more small business owners downtown. I think that’s a major focus for them right now.

PRICE: You own a separate restaurant, Patrick. How is that in terms of finding balance?

MICELI: There’s no such thing as balance! We’re working on it. It’s a lot of juggling, but at the end of the day it’s about the people you have working with you—your staff. As long as they are solid, it makes it a lot easier.

PRICE: We just shared a laugh about the “balance” part of it. What would you say are the biggest challenges to launching a startup?

PARROTT: Well there’s always the challenge of getting enough people through the door to pay the bills. That’s something you always worry about. However, I don’t want to frame it like that because we don’t worry. We don’t look at it in context of “challenges.” Challenges are getting concepts up and running, but once we’re functioning and we have the right staff in place the challenge part is in the rearview.

We’re looking for the next challenge because you can get to the point where it’s like every detail of what you do is a challenge. For example, a challenge would be different aspects of service being performed meticulously with every guest. So there are intricate challenges within the daily operation, but that’s more the fun part than anything else.

MICELI: I think it’s finding time to develop new concepts. That’s the biggest challenge. We have several things we want to do in the next year or two in Hartford. So the challenge is finding time to really do a brain dump and talk through our ideas.

PARROTT: Managing time, that’s a challenge.

PRICE: So you definitely have plans to open other ventures?

PARROTT: We have ideas for no less than four things that Hartford needs.

PRICE: Can I quote you on that?

PARROTT: Yes. Sure.

PRICE: Will they be similar to Little River Restoratives or completely different?

PARROTT: They are going to be entirely different and they are going to be more food-driven.

MICELI: The principals are the same.

PARROTT: You would know going into one of them though—you would say: I bet you these are the Little River Restoratives guys. So there will be a design elements that are similar.

MICELI: Design elements, hospitality elements, Service elements, stuff like that. We’re excited about that and we think Hartford’s a great place to be.

PRICE: Do you plan to keep all your business ventures in Hartford?

MICELI: Yes.

PRICE: So the plan is to enhance your presence and create more small businesses throughout the area.

MICELI: Right. It’s very important.

PRICE: And when can we expect to see the next venture?

MICELI: Definitely one per year for the next three years. We want get one up and running—if not two—by the end of 2016. Maybe another in 2017. The sooner the better. You have to strike while the iron is hot.

PRICE: With regard to business planning and conceptualizing, do either of you have a business background?

MICELI: I have a background in finance. I worked in the corporate world for quite a long time but I always came back to hospitality, it’s where my love has always been. Entrepreneurship at the end of the day. Not a desk.

PRICE: What about you Chris, did you always have an entrepreneurial streak or know you were going to own your own business?

PARROTT: No, I talked about it for a few years. Bartending is hard. It’s physical work. It’s not something I wanted to see myself doing when I was 50 or 60. So there was only one logical exit strategy, which was owning a bar. It seem like a fun challenge at the time.

With the business plan, it was about three or four years of planning and consideration.

MICELI: He had an extensive business plan and everything. He crunched a lot of numbers.

A busy night at Little River Restoratives Cook and The Bear pop-up event April 19, 2015.

A busy night at Little River Restoratives Cook and The Bear pop-up event April 19, 2015.

PRICE: It seems like it’s very important for you to collaborate with local businesses.

PARROTT: Small businesses help each other by cross exposure. So when Jamie “The Bear” [McDonald of Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ] comes and cooks here, we get exposed to his fan base and vice versa.

I think it’s really important for any small business to figure out how to utilize each other in a fair and equal exchange of cross exposure.
PRICE: It’s like hyperlinking on a website.

PARROTT: It’s hyperlinking in the real world.

PRICE: Any advice for those who are starting out?

PARROTT: Just do it. One of the reasons we are self-financed is because no one thought we would pull this off. But just don’t care. Do whatever it takes. If you truly believe you have a viable concept go ahead, because the worst thing that can happen is it doesn’t work out and you go back to something else.

MICELI: There’s only so much planning you can to. You can write out a business plan until you’re blue in the face, but it all happens when you open the doors.

PARROTT: If you believe in it, find a way to get it done.

PRICE: From what I’ve seen, you’ve been fairly successful.

MICELI: We’re fortunate we have a lot of loyal patrons.

PRICE: So you’re building a good customer base?

PARROTT: It’s only been seven months or so, but we appear to be developing a good regular base. And a growing base too.

We rely very heavily on other restaurants, speaking of exposure. Part of our model is to make sure bartenders and chefs like hanging out here because they have the most intimate access to all of our potential customers.

There’s a challenge: How do you get something good enough to get people to talk about it? Because they’re inclined to not talk as much when it’s good.

We know we’re going to be successful by doing something good enough for other bartenders and chefs to tell others: Little River is a good place to grab an after-dinner drink if you’re looking for something a little different.

We need that. That’s our advertising.

PRICE: Final question: What would you say is the best thing about being part of Hartford’s community?

PARROTT: I think we are first wave. I think it’s really cool. I have always seen Hartford on the verge of growth. I’ve always believed in it. And I think it’s really happening.

Hartford is poised to grow as a small city and become really cool—and necessary by virtue of its proxy to bigger cities that are no longer an accessible option for a lot of young professionals. Being a part of that first wave that I see coming is super cool.

MICELI: The barriers around here are fairly low. You can do things. We did this whole thing in about 55 days, this whole building. If you were in San Francisco or New York, that’s not how it works. Even just securing the liquor license is a really long process. So there are many benefits to being here in Hartford.

Little River Restoratives is located at 405 Capital Avenue in Hartford. The cocktail bar is open Monday through Saturday from 3:00 p.m. to 1:00 a.m. Find out more at www.lrrhartford.com.

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Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ—Small Business Growth in CT

June 08 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Bear’s Smokehouse, community, Connecticut, entrepreneur, Hartford, startup, veterans, Windsor

Jamie and Cheryl McDonald co-founded Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in 2013.

Jamie and Cheryl McDonald co-founded Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in 2013.

Innovation Destination Website Curator Nan Price sat down with Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Co-Founder Jamie “The Bear” McDonald to talk about entrepreneurship, small business ownership, and what it takes to make authentic Kansas City-style BBQ. (Rumor has it, Price stayed for lunch—and didn’t bring home any leftovers.)

The fast-growing restaurant chain, which McDonald co-founded with his wife, Cheryl, has been expanding since 2013 and currently has three locations: Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford and Windsor and Bear’s Express in South Windsor.

Construction is currently underway for a Front Street relocation, since the Hartford restaurant has outgrown its Arch Street location. McDonald also signed a lease for a space at Hartford’s Union Station. What’s more, McDonald will be teaming up with Millwright’s chef-owner Tyler Anderson to open a new restaurant, Cook and the Bear, which will be located in West Hartford’s Blue Back Square.

PRICE: In addition to being a competitive eater, have you always had an entrepreneurial side?

McDONALD: I’ve always wanted to own my own business. With starting the restaurants, everything kind of aligned, which allowed the opportunity. It’s going on almost three years now.

PRICE: Right, you launched in 2013.

McDONALD: We started in Windsor at Bart’s Drive-In Restaurant. They allowed us to lease a small area and with very little capital we were able to open the doors. Since day one, it’s just been crazy. We saved every penny we’ve made and used it to finance the buildout for the Arch Street location in Hartford. Then, once these doors were open, we used all the profits to build out the new Windsor spot. We keep continuing that cycle, so at the end of the day, we’re still pretty damn broke! We don’t take home anything. It’s all just reinvested.

PRICE: What kind of work did you do prior to Bear’s?

McDONALD: I worked for United Technologies, mostly in customer service on their aerospace side. The job was technical, so going from that to business ownership is a big difference, but you use all the same principles as any other business. Restaurants just have their own kind of unique spin.

PRICE: Back in 2015, when you received a Business Champions Award for best startup, you mentioned working long hours, seven days a week. Is that still your routine? Has it eased up at all?

McDONALD: No, I’d say it’s probably even more. The workload has changed from just making sure daily operations are happening. Now we have four different spots that are in some phase of construction. That alone keeps me up at night.

PRICE: And you have plans for a food truck too, right?

McDONALD: Yes.

Service with a smile at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford, CT.

Service with a smile at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Hartford, CT.

PRICE: So this is all ramping up for you at the same time.

McDONALD: Yes. It’s all hitting right now through June. We kicked off a lot of stuff by sponsoring the Hartford Yard Goats at the new baseball stadium in Hartford. Left field is ours.

PRICE: So two questions: Will you continue to expand? And, will you always stay in Connecticut?

McDONALD: Yes, as far as expansion goes. Our big push right now is to solidify everything so far and start looking outside of Connecticut in the fall. We’re thinking maybe Boston or Philadelphia—starting to branch out a little and reach bigger markets.

PRICE: Why was it important for you to have a presence in Hartford?

McDONALD: Because Hartford is expanding. Cheryl worked for a Hartford school district, so she used to drive by Arch Street all the time. She knew that the UConn campus was coming to downtown Hartford, and it just seemed like a good opportunity.

I would’ve never thought when we signed this lease about two years ago that two years later we’d be moving out to a larger space.

PRICE: Speaking of Hartford, you’re involved a lot throughout the community.

McDONALD: I think that is part of how we’ve grown so fast. With the product, you have to have the basics down, but I’ve always believed in corporate responsibility. At the end of the day, the community should benefit just as much from having your business be a part of the community as you do from being there.

It’s all about supporting various charities—especially the local charities—and giving back in that way. For example, we support Open Hearth, a housing and homeless shelter in Hartford, we do a lot of work with them, helping transition folks out of the halfway house. It keeps us busy.

PRICE: You’re also very involved with supporting veterans.

McDONALD: Yes. I served in the Navy, so that’s an important cause for me. Last year we worked to raise money for K9s For Warriors, which provides service dogs for veterans suffering from post 9-11 Post-traumatic Stress Disability or traumatic brain injury.

This year, we are proudly sponsoring free admission for all U.S. veterans and their families for the Travelers Championship.

Nan Price’s lunch at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Harford, CT.

Nan Price’s lunch at Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ in Harford, CT.

PRICE: Bear’s Smokehouse posts some mouth-watering photos on Facebook and Instagram. In terms of marketing, does social media play a key role?

McDONALD: As far as marketing efforts, we don’t really do any traditional print marketing.

I think small businesses—really any type of business—should be taking full advantage of social media. Facebook isn’t really free anymore; you have to pay to get people to see your posts, but it’s a great tool.

PRICE: Let’s talk about supply and demand. You’re well beyond your original five-year plan. When you don’t plan for that growth rate, how do you meet the demand?

McDONALD: You don’t!

And that’s what people start to figure out. We want to run out of food every day. Some days we’re so busy. It just kind it is what it is. It’s not like a normal restaurant where you can make some more sandwiches or throw another hamburger on, with barbecue everything is paced. We load the smokers at four o’clock in the afternoon, the process is about 24-hours.

PRICE: And it started from your love of genuine Kansas-style barbecue?

McDONALD: My love of food and I like feeding people.

PRICE: Can you discuss any entrepreneurial challenges?

McDONALD: It’s really about finding a good team. Our employees represent the business when I’m not here. If they’re not doing a good job, it doesn’t matter how good the food is, people don’t want bad service.

If you’re going to be an entrepreneur it’s not easy, it’s a sacrifice. You have to be willing to put everything on the line for it.

Even with how busy we are, because we have so much going on with construction and everything else, we’ve cashed in all of our life savings, our 401(k)s, everything to keep the business going. There are times when it was sketchy, but you have to make it over that hump and keep pushing through. That’s the point where I think a lot of businesses fail, they give up too soon.

As far as food, in the restaurant business it’s all about diversifying and being involved a lot. We are out at stadiums and different events. We’ll be out in the food truck. We’re catering. You have to take advantage of any way you can get your food out, you can’t rely on walk-in sales.

Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Co-Founders Jamie and Cheryl McDonald stand in front of a mural painted by local artist Tao LaBossiere.

Bear’s Smokehouse BBQ Co-Founders Jamie and Cheryl McDonald stand in front of a mural painted by local artist Tao LaBossiere.

Some days it’s slow for no reason, it could be a beautiful day out and it’s just slow. The first thing that crosses your mind then as a business owner is: Oh my God everybody hates us! Or we could have a random day where it’s just slammed. There’s really no rhyme or reason.

PRICE: Any other words of wisdom?

McDONALD: The only other advice I can say is, if you see an opportunity you’ve got to jump on it. You can’t wait until you think the time is perfect. It’s never going to be perfect. All your ducks are never going to be in a row.

Union Station is a good example. They put the space up for bid for proposals and I found out about it the day before proposals were due. I looked at it, did some brainstorming, and said: You know what? Let’s do it. We jumped on it, and now the space is ours. Now I’ve just got to get it working!

PRICE: You seem like the type of person who thrives on simultaneously juggling projects.

McDONALD: Yes. That’s where Cheryl and I really do well together. She’s very detail orientated whereas I am not at all. I like to just keep going, going, going. You have to have a balance like that. It’s going really well.

To learn more about Bear’s Smokehouse, visit bearsbbq.com.

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Entrepreneur Brewers: Broad Brook Brewing Company

May 24 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Broad Brook Brewing Company, Connecticut, entrepreneurs, small business, startup brewing

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price and MetroHartford Alliance Director of Economic Development John Shemo enjoyed meeting the team and touring Broad Brook Brewing Company in East Windsor, CT.

Broad Brook Co-Founders Eric Mance (left) and Tom Rossing (right) with Sales/Promotion Coordinator Jackie Lanagan (center).

Broad Brook Co-Founders Eric Mance (left) and Tom Rossing (right) with Sales/Promotion Coordinator Jackie Lanagan (center).

Co-Founders Tom Rossing and Eric Mance shared some of the challenges it takes to get a brewery up and running and Sales/Promotion Coordinator Jackie Lanagan discussed some of the ways Broad Brook Brewing is giving back to the community.

PRICE: Whose idea was it to open a brewery?

ROSSING: The whole thing started at my house in Broad Brook, CT, which is how we came up with the name. I was brewing and Joe Dealba (who is now a Partner/Brewer) started helping out a little bit. Eric joined in and he and I started experimenting with more recipes.

Eventually, we started entering competitions because we wanted to see how good our beer was. We started winning ribbons all over the country. At that point, we realized our beer was good enough for the market, Eric started putting together a business plan, and here we are.

PRICE: What was your mission at the outset?

ROSSING:From the beginning, our basic goal was to put out good-quality, drinkable beer. We wanted to make beer styles people would like and something for everybody.

PRICE: Eric, Tom, do either of you have any business background?

ROSSING: I worked construction. I had my own roofing company. I worked for myself for a lot of years and so did Eric. So it wasn’t like we didn’t know what it takes to run a business.

MANCE: Right. I grew up in a small business environment. My family owns a printing business in Massachusetts. I started my own network consulting business in 2000, which I still operate.

LANAGAN: I love that about them—they were homebrewers with backgrounds in construction, printing, and computers. They had never dealt with the bars, restaurants, package stores. And they’re doing awesome.

PRICE: Let’s talk about the timeline. According to your website, in July 2011 you set a goal to open a brewery. When did you actually open?

Broad Brook Brewing Company has a 240-member mug club—which sold out right away.

Broad Brook Brewing Company has a 240-member mug club—which sold out right away.

ROSSING: We opened in October 2013. But, it was actually July 4, 2011 when we really got going. We stopped competitions at that time because we already knew the beer was good. Then we started getting involved with the CT Beer Trail and doing tastings. By doing the tastings, people were able to meet us and try the beer. It was also great marketing.

PRICE:But at this point, you weren’t actually a full-fledged brewery, correct?

ROSSING: Correct. We spent two years marketing ourselves by making beer, going out and presenting it to people at all these different tastings. We marketed ourselves as homebrewers—we couldn’t sell a drop.

MANCE: We were trying to build a brand and a name before we could even legally sell anything. So we would brew beer on the weekends and then we would find places we could serve it to the public as homebrewers. We kept getting better and better reactions from people, which helped solidify the business concept.

ROSSING: But we also hit the ground running.

MANCE: The day we opened we had a following. People were waiting for us to open because they already knew about the beer.

PRICE: Let’s talk about the business growth and reach. Are you only distributing in Connecticut?

ROSSING: We’re distributing in the entire state of Connecticut and western Massachusetts.

PRICE: And what are your future plans? Do you plan to distribute further?

ROSSING: Yes, we plan on going further east into Massachusetts and probably north into Vermont.

MANCE: We probably have to grow into another facility because we’re running out of space.

ROSSING: We’re maxing out at this facility. We’ve been swapping 15-barrel for 30-barrel tanks. You have to meet your demand. Going out of stock is never a good thing. If your product keeps going out of stock you’ll lose your tap lines. The stores don’t like it and neither do the customers.

We’re meeting our goals, as far as our growth, which went faster than we anticipated. We’re keeping up and we want to continue to keep up so we don’t run out of stock.

PRICE: When you talk about your goals, clearly you sat down and had a business plan with milestones you wanted to reach.

Broad_Brook_BarrelsMANCE: Yes. And we are exceeding those—far exceeding those.

LANAGAN: And like Eric said, right now we’re looking at southern Vermont and eastern Massachusetts. We’ll choose a couple of events, see how we do there, and test the market that way.

PRICE: Speaking of marketing, you’re obviously still going to events. Are you still doing tastings?

LANAGAN: Absolutely. We’re at package stores, festivals, events, beer dinners. We also rely on social media.

PRICE: You also get the word out through a lot of charity events.

LANAGAN: A lot of the events we do are nonprofit. I would say 70% of the events that we do outside of the building are charity-related. We give to the MS Society, Boys and Girls Club, Wounded Warriors, and Five Corner Cupboard, to name a few.

We’re also involved with the Thread City Hop Fest, which is organized by Willimantic Brewery. The annual event features more than 40 local brewers and proceeds benefit local charities.

PRICE: We talked a little bit about supply and demand as being a challenge. What other challenges have you encountered as a startup and do you have any advice for those who are starting out?

MANCE: Good luck!

ROSSING: It seems nowadays everybody thinks that it’s the goose that laid the golden egg. They’ll do the social media but really they need to get out and meet people too. It’s not as easy as it all seems.

And you should probably test market your product so you know what you need to do or what you need to improve on before you actually open your brewery.

SHEMO: Any challenges around distribution?

LANAGAN: We have five different distributors, so with each area there are different challenges. Every area has different styles of beer they are looking for and there are different types of people, so you have to adjust according to the area you’re distributing to.

SHEMO: Who distributes for you in Western Massachusetts?

LANAGAN: It’s commercial distribution.

SHEMO: Is distributing out of state an additional challenge?

LANAGAN: It’s different. There are different laws.

MANCE: There’s more paperwork and additional licensing.

ROSSING: The biggest thing isn’t if you have a good product or you have a good taproom or you have good bottling, that’s not it, but the distribution is. It’s a whole different beast.

LANAGAN: We’re lucky, they chose great distributors for each area. They’re all working pretty well for us.

SHEMO: How about availability of hops? How does that work for you?

ROSSING: You’ve got to guess and you’ve got to plan ahead. As a new brewery, that’s a difficult thing. If you’re homebrewing you have availability to all the different hops. Once you start getting to this level, you need contracts and then there’s spot buying. You’ve got to plan years ahead and figure out what you might need. Then if the supplies you want aren’t available, you have to change your recipe and figure out how you’re going to cross-reference things to make things work based on what you can actually get.

SHEMO: So this is a big deal?

ROSSING: Oh, it is a big deal.

MANCE: There’s a lot of variation year-to-year with the yield and the quality of the hops themselves. So there are those challenges as well.

ROSSING: So basically if you’re going to do it, do your homework.

MANCE: Yes, just prepare as much as possible.

ROSSING: What’s that expression? Double your timeframe and triple your budget. It’s a whole big adventure.

MANCE: But once you’re there and everything is going well, it’s worth it.

PRICE: Do you feel like that messy part is kind of behind you now, two years in?

ROSSING: Absolutely. We’re stable. We know what’s going on. We know the process now too if we have to get something approved.

When you’re starting out, you really have to be ready. You have to be very proactive, on top of everything, and willing to sacrifice a lot of time and effort. Just like any other startup.

And reinvest your capital. If you see money coming and you just keep taking it, you’re never going to grow. That’s a mistake a lot of people make in the beginning. Capital improvement is huge, especially in the very beginning.

This business is recession-proof. When times are good people drink; when times are bad they drink some more. Craft beer is growing and increasing its growth percentages every year. It’s a good thing, people like it, and I think it’s here to stay.

PRICE: There’s definitely a demand for it.

LANAGAN: In the meantime, they’re helping local businesses around them too. A lot of the work they’ve done in the tasting room is from local people.

MANCE: It’s a small business mentality: I’ll help you, you help me, and we all help each other. We’ll help the community too, as we go down that road.

Find out more about Broad Brook Brewing, visit http://broadbrookbrewing.

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Hartford Farm To Street Dinner

May 12 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Back East Brewing Company, community, Connecticut, Hartford, Hartford Prints!

Farm_to_StreetThe second annual Farm To Street Dinner will take place Saturday, June 25 at 6:00 p.m. Hosted by reSET Impact Award recipient Hartford Prints!, ON20, and Hartford Food System, the outdoor, pop-up community event celebrates the city of Hartford.

“The spirit behind Farm To Street is to highlight Hartford’s unique cultural scene by partnering our city’s local businesses, non-profits, and community members through a unique and exciting experience,” explains Callie Gale Heilmann, Middle Sister at Hartford Prints!

“We set out to organize this event because we thought if people can sit down to eat together, they can sit down to grow our city together,” she adds. “This event is for anyone who has a youthful spirit, a vision, and a civic mind. It is also for anyone who loves food!”

Last year, the event involved 160 people, who sat down to one long communal table on Pratt Street in downtown Hartford. This year, the event will seat more than 200 guests for a farm-to-street outdoor dinner on Trinity Street in Hartford.

The Farm To Street dinner includes local fare, culture, and industry. All guests are asked to BYOD (Bring Your Own Dinner). The ticket price includes a local, seasonal first course and dessert catered by ON20 and beverages from Back East Brewing Company and T Edward Wines.

Seating is first come, first served. All tickets are sold online. No tickets will be sold at the event. All proceeds benefit Hartford Food System, an urban food advocacy organization.

Purchase tickets at hartfordprints.com/farmtostreet.

 

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Connecticut Startup Business Success: Krust Pizza Bar

April 28 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: Connecticut, entrepreneur, Greater Hartford, Krust, Middletown, pizza, startup, StartUP Bristol

 

Krust Pizza Bar co-owners Rich Garcia and Kevin Wirtes met while working at The Hartford. Their passions for cooking and bourbon—combined with job changes—encouraged them to explore their dream of owning a restaurant. The busy entrepreneurs met with Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price to discuss how they launched their startup, some challenges to running a business, and their recent StartUP Bristol award.

PRICE: Do either of you recall thinking: I want to own a business or, I really think I’m an entrepreneur?

Krust Pizza owners Kevin Wirtes (left) and Rich Garcia.

Krust Pizza owners Kevin Wirtes (left) and Rich Garcia.

WIRTES: Personally, I’ve always known. I was the kid who had tag sales and shoveled driveways. I’ve always known I wanted to make money for myself and have a business. I guess I never knew how it would come to me. I don’t know how you feel about entrepreneurship, Rich?

GARCIA: It was kind of the same journey for me. I did all those things as a child too. I was always looking to get money more than my allowance.

PRICE: You both had project management jobs at The Hartford. How have you taken those skills and applied them to running a restaurant?

GARCIA: It’s exactly like a restaurant.

WIRTES: We took a much more macro management approach. We ask for a lot of data back from our employees so we know what to do with it.

We try to run the business as if everyone wants to be here. We’re all trying to work together. We are the rudders that steer the ship in the slow movements towards the gulf and we expect them to make the faster movements when we are not here.

GARCIA: We instill a lot of trust in our staff. We had a really big transition about eight months ago. Kevin and I kind of pulled back from our day-to-day operations. From day one, I was cooking and Kevin was bartending every single day. So we started trying to pull that back a little so we could focus on growing the business and managing.

WIRTES: There’s no way to see the big picture if you’re a cog. We decided we really needed to remove ourselves. It was tough. And sometimes I feel like it wasn’t the right thing because we are the face of this place. People come to see Rich cooking and me making drinks. He developed the food menu. I developed the cocktail menu. But it was a business decision. It was the right one because we can now see the forest through the trees.

GARCIA: But with cooking and bartending, in the beginning it was really important to us to be on our feet because we’ve never done this before. This is our first business venture together.

PRICE: You opened in 2013. Since then, you’ve doubled in size. How are you getting the word out?

WIRTES: Social media. I once told Rich: If this was 15 years ago, I don’t know how we’d be doing this because we reach so many people through social media. Facebook is a great platform. We have more than 10,000 Facebook followers.

GARCIA: We put most of our money into Facebook because we see immediate results.

PRICE: How are you collaborating with the local community and other restaurants?

GARCIA: We use Hartford Baking Company for their brioche buns. We also use Liuzzi Angeloni Cheese, which is out of Hamden, CT. We use ton of local farms. It’s very important to us.

WIRTES: We also support a lot of Connecticut breweries. The brewery scene in Connecticut is blowing up. The beer is really good. It’s not just that is from Connecticut, it’s actually really good beer. So we’re definitely big on supporting Connecticut locally. That’s what we are. We are a small business in Connecticut.

PRICE: Let’s talk about StartUP Bristol.  You recently received a $22,500 award—congratulations. How did you become involved?

GARCIA: We’re good friends with Adam von Gootkin, Co-Founder of Onyx Spirits. He lives in Bristol and is on the StartUP Bristol committee. Adam had befriended Justin Malley, the Economic Development Executive Director in Bristol who created the StartUP Bristol campaign and committee.

Adam introduced us to StartUP Bristol. We knew the town, but we didn’t really know what was going on there. We got excited talking to Adam and Justin because they’re really passionate about Bristol and making it a better place to do business. Justin encouraged us to join the program and we started researching it.

WIRTES: It felt like the right fit. It feels like a town that’s embracing us. In a way it's kind of exciting for us to go to Bristol because there's no scene.

PRICE: So you can make a scene, so to speak.

Woodfired, Neapolitan-style pizza from Krust.

Woodfired, Neapolitan-style pizza from Krust.

WIRTES: Right, which is fun. It’s good because we want that big neighborhood vibe, getting people attached to us.

PRICE: So does this mean you’re planning to open another restaurant?

WIRTES: Yes. We are looking at a location, I think part of this grant from StartUP Bristol is that we do operate a business in the town.

PRICE: That’s exciting.

WIRTES: We are excited. We’re kind of treating this one like “Krust light” in that we want to be able to manage both restaurants successfully.

GARCIA: We don’t want to overextend ourselves.

WIRTES: Some places go bigger on their second restaurant. We plan to go smaller, make it more manageable, and implement some of the efficiencies we’ve learned here in Middletown. This place took a while to become efficient probably because we were learning along the way. At one point, we actually started tapping into our corporate life as far as the processes and procedures we learned. All that stuff does have a place, we just don’t want to have 10 meetings a day about it.

We’re happy. We’re hungry for the next space. I hope down the road we can be involved with helping entrepreneurs—kind of like what Adam is doing, be on a board where we’re handing money out. That would be awesome.

PRICE: I’ve heard that a lot before. People who receive mentoring want to give it back.

GARCIA: Absolutely.

WIRTES: Connecticut is evolving and changing. I think it’s pretty awesome. I really feel like there’s a heartbeat going on in Connecticut.

GARCIA: I feel like there’s a lot of younger entrepreneurs in Connecticut too. I never saw that before. Before, if I thought of someone opening a business I tended to think of somebody older. But there’s a lot of young people starting companies—look at Adam. It’s nice to see that for sure. It’s good seeing young energy.

WIRTES: Which is one of the reasons we want to be involved with Hartford at some point—because we think Hartford’s got this resurgence going on I know I want to be tapped into. I would love to see Hartford be this destination city.

We definitely have dreams of owning multiple Krust and multiple other types of restaurants. We’re focusing on Bristol next. But Hartford has been on our list a few.

GARCIA: I’d like to have some sort of presence in Hartford.

PRICE: Do you have any advice for people starting out?

WIRTES: It’s possible. It doesn’t take as much as you think. We had a lot of people tell us in the beginning: You need like half $1 million to open a business. We sat down we did the numbers and realized that wasn’t necessarily true.

GARCIA: We could’ve easily spent half $1 million.

WIRTES: But we saved a lot by being our own general contractors. As far as entrepreneurs who are thinking about doing something like this, I mean...

GARCIA: Do it with a partner you trust.

WIRTES: Definitely do it with a partner you trust, but I say go for it. Especially if you’re younger, you have plenty of time to fail and pick yourself back up.

GARCIA: Our mantra was: What do we have to lose?

WIRTES: We really believed in ourselves and we knew that we had something to offer. Good atmosphere, good prices, good food. You have all these things to choose from. Are you going to hit all of them? Some of them? We see some places open up, they put the open sign on and expect people to come running. It’s not like that at all. We spent a lot of time drumming up business and getting people excited about what we were doing before we were even open.

GARCIA: Proper planning is important. And you have to be passionate about what you’re doing.

PRICE: I hear that word a lot.

GARCIA: I think it comes through with the product. You got to show people you’re passionate.

WIRTES: Then there’s that customer service fine line of standing by your products and bending toward them, that’s something we’re learning along the way. We want everyone to leave happy, but you can’t make everyone happy. It’s impossible.

PRICE: So it’s more important to have a little bit of a tough skin?

WIRTES: Exactly.

For Krust Pizza Bar menu, hours, and location, visit www.krustpizzabar.com.

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Entrepreneur Brewer: Relic Brewing

April 19 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: brewery, business growth, Connecticut, entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship, small business, startup

Innovation Destination Hartford Website Curator Nan Price took a tour of Relic Brewing in Plainville, CT and talked to Founder Mark Sigman about marketing to a niche audience, choosing a distributor, and getting a startup brewery off the ground.

PRICE: Did you always want to start a brewery?

SIGMAN: I always wanted to own my own business. When I reached a point in my life where it was realistic, I researched a lot of different business opportunities. In the end the one I thought was most viable was opening a brewery.

Mark Sigman is Founder of Relic Brewing.

Mark Sigman is Founder of Relic Brewing in Plainville, CT.

PRICE: So you didn’t necessarily know you were going to be brewing beer?

SIGMAN: I used to live in Colorado and Wyoming. Out there the beer scene is more mature and I became very used to living in close proximity to breweries. When I moved back to Connecticut, where I had originally grown up, I missed the fact that there were no breweries nearby. Even the beer selection in the stores was more limited than I was used to and I thought something could be done about that.

PRICE: So that was part of your reason to start the business?

SIGMAN: Yes, that was part of the reason. There was clear opportunity and there was also a clear model to follow that I’d learned from living out west.

PRICE: How did the brewery get started? Is it just you or do you have a business partner?

SIGMAN: It’s just me. I funded everything myself with my 401(k). I spent about a third to half of it initially to get a really small thing going.

At the time when I started the brewery, I went through a lot of licensing—it takes about a year of licensing and waiting. I planned to start small because I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to leave my full-time computer programming job and, at the time, I wasn’t sure if Connecticut would even welcome a small brewery.

PRICE: And this was what year?

SIGMAN: This was in 2011. The licensing kept getting delayed, so we didn’t actually open until February 2012. But I was building this place out in 2011. I started with a very small brewing system without all the tanks I have now. It was an experiment. And I didn’t quit my job. I kept my job full-time for a while, then I went part-time.

PRICE: Tell us about the opening.

SIGMAN: I didn’t do any advertising. I just listed the brewery on the CT Beer Trail website. I didn’t even do any social media in the beginning. And we were just mobbed. I got calls from all over Connecticut. Everyone wanted to carry our beer. It was unbelievable—the demand and the reception.

PRICE: Wow! Why do you think that was?

SIGMAN: I think mostly just because we were new. No one had opened a new brewery for long, so when someone did, it just blew people out of the water. And the thing was, I didn’t forecast any of that. I didn’t open with enough product. We would run out every weekend.

PRICE: That was in 2012. How has the brewery evolved since then? Do you have any employees now?

SIGMAN: In early July 2012 I quit my part-time job. By that summer, I realized I had to get bigger, so I set my sights on taking over the additional space in this building.

The space is much bigger now. I have one employee, Stephanie. She works at the brewery a couple of days a week. The rest of the time she’s on the road doing sales.

As we grew, we started making a lot more beer and we started selling a lot more around the state. Most other breweries have sales people. People who are the beer buyers—especially at higher-volume bars, restaurants, and liquor stores—get approached by a lot of different breweries that want them to carry their beer. Buyers make decisions based on quality and other things. It’s become more of a traditional business, which means building relationships, networking, knowing the right people, and even cold calling. Where in the beginning, it didn’t even matter because the product was so rare. It was so new, there was no competition. Everyone just wanted our beer.

PRICE: You said the product was “so rare.” What is so unique about your beer?

SIGMAN: Traditionally, when someone opens a brewery, they have three or four varieties available, most of which are pretty traditional. When we opened, we went more along the model of what they’re doing in Colorado and Wyoming. We didn’t really have a flagship, we just brewed different kinds of beers and we changed them all the time. We wanted to be more creative and we wanted the styles we brewed to be untraditional.

PRICE: To wit, a Thrillist article, “The Most Underrated Brewery in Every State,” notes that, Relic Brewing will “have a new stout available in two versions: with and without coffee. Because why not. That’s the beauty of Relic: beers show up for a weekend and are never seen again.”

Relic Brewing takes pride in its artistic beer labels.

Relic Brewing takes pride in its artistic beer labels.

SIGMAN: Right. The English ale we opened with, Antiquity, is an old ale. It’s a specific style that most people have never even heard of it. In the beginning, we were really targeting a niche audience of beer geeks. We didn’t try to focus on more of a mass market audience because we knew we couldn’t man it. We were able to reach our niche market really quickly through the very specific media they follow.

So we had hundreds and hundreds of beer geeks from all over visit our tasting room. They definitely spread the word and we immediately got so much recognition in the beer scene around New England.

We are becoming a little more well-known. In fact, Food and Wine magazine recently named us the best nanobrewery in Connecticut.

PRICE: Where do you see the future of the brewery?

SIGMAN: After I upgraded the system and got the space working really well we increased the number of people who came to visit us and really got our tasting room rolling. I reached a point where there weren’t enough hours in the day. I couldn’t do more bottles or kegs and circulate them and brew and do everything. I knew at that point I needed to start planning for another type of expansion.

It’s really expensive to upgrade. But there was also the option of brewing off site. I was approached by Thomas Hooker Brewery, which is a much bigger brewery out in Bloomfield, CT. They do some of their own brews, but they brew beer for other people too.

In 2015 I did 10 batches at Thomas Hooker Brewery. They do all the bottling for me, but it’s definitely a very hands-on experience. This year I think we’ll do 16 or 17 batches. It’s significant growth. The batches there are 40 barrels and the ones we do at Relic Brewing are three barrels.

PRICE: That really puts it into context.

SIGMAN: It makes it so that we can really have a presence. We are probably in at least 400 liquor stores and, at any given time, about 100 different bars in Connecticut and Boston.

PRICE: Can we talk about some of the challenges to get Relic Brewery up and running?

SIGMAN: In the beginning I was determined to self-distribute. Once I started to do offsite batches, I knew I couldn’t distribute it myself, or it would be extreme effort to do such a thing.

It’s a tough choice for breweries. Some decide they’re going to be in the business of distribution and in the business of brewing beer—this means you have to buy trucks and invoicing software to track accounts. It almost becomes two separate businesses. And I didn’t want to do that.

I decided to focus on beer brewing and let the distribution people do the distributing. I chose a small, boutique distributor in Connecticut. It was a decision that was mostly based on personal preference because I didn’t want to go with someone who was handling the larger companies.

I immediately realized the choice hurt us, because the distributor didn’t have that many accounts, they didn’t have the wide reach. Now they’ve been open for a few years, they have a much deeper penetration, and our sales are better. So I made a risky move. Choosing them definitely hurt our growth in the beginning, but it’s okay now.

PRICE: Any other challenges?

SIGMAN: The most critical thing is being properly capitalized to actually do something. We’ve been constantly undercapitalized.

One example is when we went to do the bigger batches. Most breweries wouldn’t have done it the way we did it. Not only would they have most likely chosen the biggest, most powerful distributors that have the gigantic reach and marketing capabilities, they would have also opened with at least three beers to maintain a shelf presence.

PRICE: And you opened with?

SIGMAN: One.

Other breweries open with a tremendous amount of draft beer and sort a flood the entire market. They also open with a decent marketing budget. So there is a whole strategy to a launch.

PRICE: And you hadn’t done that.

SIGMAN: No. I didn’t do anything like that.

PRICE: But you’re still successful, in ways.

SIGMAN: Well, it takes a long time. It’s completely different. That’s how you do it right. We did everything wrong. It’s all because of undercapitalization.

PRICE: Let’s go back to the topic of marketing. How are you getting your name out there?

SIGMAN: We’ve been open for four years in February, so we are one of the oldest, and we don’t have great name recognition.

We’ve done a really good job targeting the really hardcore beer enthusiasts. Around the entire state they know who we are and have probably tried our product. But that’s a tiny subset of the actual beer drinkers.

Connecticut has one of the highest per capita craft beer drinkers now. In New Haven county, about 30% of the market is craft beer. Nationwide it’s more like 18%. So it’s really high. Hartford is about 27%. So there are a lot of craft beer drinkers in Connecticut and the vast majority of them have no idea who we are.

PRICE: How do you change that?

SIGMAN: That’s been our challenge. In the beginning I didn’t care because I had people who wanted our niche beer. Once we grew, I thought I could do the bigger batches and still have the success I wanted, but doesn’t quite work like that. You have to think about it a lot more. Once you’re brewing that much beer, you have to think about the wider market and reaching a more mainstream beer consumer. And that wasn’t something I’d even thought about.

That’s one of the reasons I hired Stephanie, because we needed help with sales. We needed someone on the road. If most of the mainstream consumers have no idea who Relic Brewing is, then a lot of the liquor stores, bars, and restaurants also have no idea who we are.

The craft beer market now is so giant you really have to reach your average person. The vast majority of people who live in Plainville have no idea we are here, even though we’ve been on tap at J. Timothy’s since the day we opened. Is been like that for years. A lot of people have drank our beer and they may not even know that we are from Plainville.

The name recognition thing is challenging, but that’s what leads to liquor store sales. Our bar sales are through the roof. Our liquor store sales are improving, but not as good as they could be.

The newer breweries have done a much better job with name recognition. What we have had on our side is our beer. We make really unique, good-quality beer. It’s always gotten good ratings and respect from different people. We do well with that. We get lots of demand for events. People still want it. We will send 30 kegs to the distributor and they are gone in a day.

PRICE: Going back to name recognition—how do you improve that?

SIGMAN: I talked to some of the other breweries and they told me: You’ve got to have tastings at liquor stores. Most people won’t even buy anything without tasting it first. Now we have Stephanie doing tastings every Friday.

If you’re not doing tastings no one’s buying your stuff. Of course some people still take a chance. But, that’s what the liquor stores want. They know that their customers like it and it leads to more sales for them. That whole cycle has really taken hold at the liquor stores. So hiring Stephanie has been really helpful with that.

PRICE: I have heard that from other breweries. They say get your product out there and let them taste it and then realize they like it.

SIGMAN: Doing tastings has made a significant difference in moving the cases of product for the most part. So that’s been helpful and really choosing the right beers that move the fastest.

PRICE: So you’re really learning as you go.

SIGMAN: Right. To be successful you have to change, you have to keep pace with the industry.

Learn more about tasting hours and beers available at Relic Brewing by visiting www.relicbeer.com.

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A New Home for Connecticut Food Entrepreneurs

April 07 2016 Innovation Destination: Hartford At the CT Table 0 comments Tags: community, Connecticut, culinary, food entrepreneur, startup success

ThymeShareLiz and Bruce Hoffman are setting out to create an entrepreneurial culinary revolution in Connecticut. The couple launched their startup ThymeShare a year and a half ago with the mission to provide a space for entrepreneur chefs, caterers and home-based businesses to invent, experiment and grow.

On September 3, 2015, the Hoffmans signed the lease for 485 Main Street, Hartford. They expect to open in January, 2016. The five-year plan is to replicate ThymeShare in every urban city in New England.

According to the ThymeShare website, the business concept is to offer a complete culinary solution that facilitates small business growth, supports the community ,and enhances the city of Hartford.

“ThymeShare is a small business that believes in small business,” emphasizes Liz Hoffman, Co-Founder and President.

Liz, who has a marketing background, supported her husband Bruce’s idea for the company and helped develop the business plan, which includes a pop-up 110-seat restaurant and celebrity chef competitions.

With his operations and Six Sigma credentials, Bruce acts as Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of ThymeShare. The couple combined their talents, passions and funds to get the business off the ground. Both quit full-time jobs to pursue their dream.

“We believe so much in what we’re doing. We’re 100% committed and involved,” says Bruce.

“We are so close to our vision,” adds Liz.

GETTING TO THE HEART OF HARTFORD

The couple developed ThymeShare around their love of all things culinary. They also tried to approach the business concept by trying to determine a type of business that would succeed in Hartford.

“We asked ourselves, what’s Hartford’s identity?” Bruce recalls. “It used to be insurance and manufacturing, but there is always one staple: food.”

The Hoffmans, who were both born in New Britain, CT, purposely chose to locate the business in Hartford. “It’s our way of giving a little spark back to Hartford,” says Bruce.

“There are so many avenues for growth here in Hartford,” Liz pointed out. “For instance, you can lease land for urban farming to provide an urban farm-to-table experience. Plus, we are close to public transportation.”

UTILIZING CONNECTICUT STARTUP RESOURCES

 The Hoffmans worked closely with Tammy Warner, Business Advisor at the Connecticut Small Business Development Center (CTSBDC). “Tammy really helped us focus and acted as sounding board, poking holes in our business model,” says Liz.

The couple also consulted with Connecticut-area executive chefs to be onsite resources. “No one knows everything,” Liz acknowledged. “It’s important to surround yourself with the right people with tools, resources and knowledge.”

There were a lot of obstacles to getting ThymeShare up and running. For example, the space needed to be health-code compliant, explained Bruce.

With regard to funding, the couple put in about $100,000 of their own equity. They met with Stephen Cole, Hartford’s Director of Economic Development Division, Department of Development Services, who referred them to Hartford Economic Development Corp. (HEDCO), where they were able to obtain a $150,000 line of credit.

The Hoffmans also worked with the Spanish American Merchants Association, Inc. (SAMA), a nonprofit organization that serves as a vehicle for the economic growth of Connecticut-based businesses. The organization was created to help business people, especially Latinos, develop a better understanding of economic principles.

Rosa Jacinto, Loan Officer and Small Business Specialist at SAMA was “our biggest cheerleader,” Bruce says.

One of the goals with ThymeShare was to have no external investors. “We didn’t want anyone to dilute our vision,” Bruce underscored. The Hoffmans also plan to turn ThymeShare into a B Corporation by January 2016.

“A typical corporation has a board that is focused on profits and can take measures to remove people regardless of the vision,” explains Liz. “Making ThymeShare into a B Corporation allows our mission to stay pure—the priority is maintaining the vision rather than solely focused on profits,” she continued.

“Our vision would be both for profit as well as charitable commitments,” adds Bruce.

COLLABORATING WITH CONNECTICUT STARTUP COMPANIES

ThymeShare will be working with FRESH Farm Aquaponics to structure a fish tank within the space that will act as a sustainable ecosystem. FRESH Farm Aquaponics is working with Connecticut entrepreneurs to use aquaponics to cultivate a sustainable food future in many communities.

PHILANTHROPIC ENTREPRENEURS

Liz and Bruce Hoffman launched their startup ThymeShare around their love of all things culinary.

Liz and Bruce Hoffman launched their startup ThymeShare around their love of all things culinary.

In addition to supporting culinary startups, the Hoffmans will give 20% of their revenue back to charity. They also intend to build their staff with what Liz refers to as “non-violent second chancers” as well as veterans recovering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). “We feel it’s important to give back to veterans,” she emphasized.

The Hoffmans plan to have eight to 10 full-time employees with benefits and 12-14 part-time employees who will work 20 to 25 hours a week and earn $14 an hour, explained Bruce. “We see these individuals as our future,” he stressed. “With everyone we plan to hire, no one is stuck in one position washing dishes or cleaning up. There is room to grow.”

Another way ThymeShare plans to give back is through a non-profit culinary camp geared toward nine to 13 year olds, which will be funded through grants. “We want to break the cycle of the social welfare system and provide opportunities,” says Liz.

HELPING FOOD ENTREPRENEURS MAKE THEIR VISIONS A REALITY

Along with charitable giving and providing a place to test business assumptions, ThymeShare will also offer business classes to culinary entrepreneurs.

“True entrepreneurs work with the right resources to create a reality out of their vision,” says Bruce.

“Most new restaurants fail,” he continues. “The idea behind the pop-up restaurant is to help entrepreneurs who want to open a restaurant—they can use the space to test their concept. Once they are successful here, they can build a following and stay in Hartford.”

“It takes a leader to say: I know what I want to do, but I don’t know everything,” adds Liz. “To build your dream, it takes a tribe. It truly takes a village.”

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